Questions tagged [nuclear-chemistry]

This tag should be applied to questions about processes where elemental compositions are changed due to nuclear reactions.

71 questions
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Are there any actual uses of isodiaphers?

While studying atomic structure, I came across the terms isotopes, isobars, isoelectronic species, isotones and isodiaphers. While I can accept that the classification of isotopes, isobars, isoelectronic species and isotones may be useful, I do not…
Righter
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Can nuclear fission or fusion occur together with bond formation in a reaction?

Is it possible for a nuclear reaction to occur simultaneously with a chemical reaction involving bond formation? Can anyone suggest an example of this, please?
agha rehan abbas
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When uranium or thorium is broken down in molten salt reactors, will it produce reactive chlorine or fluorine gas?

In molten salt reactors, uranium or thorium exist as $\ce{UCl4}$ and $\ce{ThF4}$ in a 1:4 stoichiometric ratio. When a uranium is split into a barium and a krypton, the barium becomes $\ce{BaCl2}$ while the krypton is inert. As a result, two…
哲煜黄
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Fluorine isotopes and isomers

I was looking up fluorine isotopes out of curiosity. The Wikipedia entry gives info on them but adds there are also two isomers which are $\mathrm{^{18m}F}$ and $\mathrm{^{26m}F}$. What is an isomer of an atomic nucleus please someone?
Barry
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How does beta decay increases the stabilization of the nuclei?

How does beta emission by a nuclei increases the general stability of it? I surely am not a specialist or anything, but this just don't make sense to me, since the objective of radiation is to release energy, but I can't figure out exactly how it's…
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Why can't a reverse fission reaction be automatically classified as a nuclear fusion reaction?

$$\ce{_2^4He + _13^27Al -> _15^30P + _0^1n}$$ Will this reaction qualify as a nuclear fusion reaction? The answer to this question in the test says that it won't, yet it seems to be the reverse of a fission reaction. Why would it not be considered…
magikarp
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How one calls temporal changes of chemical content due to nuclear reactions?

So, I am trying to find the term for subject question: temporal change of chemical content due to nuclear reactions. Specifically, I am interested in time evolution of the number of atoms of each isotope in, let say, spontaneous decay chain but…
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Nuclear Fusion and Fission

When a heavy nucleus undergoes nuclear fission , it splits to two smaller, more stable nuclei and produces heat, similarly, when two light nuclei fuse, to make a heavier, more stable nucleus and produces energy. The produced energy, is due to the…
Positron12
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How are fission products formed?

I know this question may seem a bit simple, but I would like to know about how fission products of an element are formed. There seems to be no way for krypton-92 and barium-141, the immediate fission products of U235, to decay into a fission product…
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When carbon-14 decays into nitrogen-14 during β-decay, carbon-14 emits a electron while also receiving a new one. How does it add up?

As far as I understand, when $\ce{^{14}C}$ decays into $\ce{^{14}N}$, a neutron is turned into a electron and a proton, and a electron is emitted. But here is the part I don't understand. If an electron is emitted (witch I guess means that one…
noob
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Band of stability

Here’s the band of stability as it appears in my textbook: 1- My textbook states that the last stable atom is Pb-206 and every element that has an atomic number greater than 82 is radioactive. But if every dot resembles a stable atom, why aren’t…
Positron12
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Why does nuclear waste contain plutonium?

According to this page on Wikipedia: Reactor-grade plutonium (RGPu) is the isotopic grade of plutonium that is found in spent nuclear fuel after the uranium-235 primary fuel that a nuclear power reactor uses has burnt up. Since plutonium is not…
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Collison of two alpha particlesre

I was reading on nuclear chemistry - in particular, the bombardment of nuclei with alpha-particles - and was wondering what the effect of $\ce{^4_2He + ^4_2He -> ^8_4Be}$ would be. My instinct is to recognize this as a "fusion"-like reaction, but I…
Jordan
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Nuclear Fusion and the worlds water supply

First off, I'm probably missing an important part of the argument regarding nuclear fusion. What I think I know about it; Nuclear fusion (using heat instead of gravity) is taking Deuterium and Tritium(sp?) and heating them until they fuse. This…
Kayot
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